The Dawning holiday celebration is coming to Destiny 2

The three-week event will feature gifts, snowball fights, themed engrams, and Mayhem in the Crucible.

The holiday season is almost upon us, here in the real world and also in Destiny 2. Bungie announced in its final blog update for 2017 that The Dawning, a festive event with snowball fights, gifts, Mayhem mode in the Crucible, and Dawning-themed engrams and exotics, will begin next week.

Mayhem is a Crucible mode from the original Destiny in which abilities recharge faster, heavy ammo drops more readily, and point values are much higher. Bungie didn't explain exactly how it will operate (a breakdown of the original Mayhem mode is available from the Destiny Wiki), but said, "It's anarchy—and it's awesome."

The Dawning will also confer special rewards on players through weekly engrams, and Dawning-related exotics—ship, ghost, sparrow, and emote—will also be available for purchase with Bright Dust in the Eververse store. And because it is better to give than to receive, Dawning Gift Schematics will be available from the Bazaar.

"Venture to other worlds and craft a unique gift for the vendors and agents you find in the Tower and beyond. Then, give the lucky recipient their gift and receive a gift in return," Bungie said. "You can participate in the season of giving every day of the event."

Also on the way—separate from The Dawning—is a new webcomic series called Fall of Osiris that will reveal the origins of Osiris and Ikora. The series will be written by Eisner winner Ryan North, writer of Marvel's Unbeatable Squirrel Girl books, and Curse of Osiris narrative lead Christine Thompson, with art by Ze Carlos, the creator of Destiny: The Official Coloring Book, which is apparently a real thing. A hard release date hasn't been set, but the comic will be free for everyone.

Bungie also said that reworks are coming to Faction Rallies and Iron Banner as well, although details on that will have to wait. "Essentially, our goals are to continue adding new challenges to Destiny, and to keep old challenges relevant without taking them away from anyone. It’s a delicate balance, and we intend to do a better job of striking it," it wrote.

"In the most immediate version of the future, that means making changes to Faction Rallies and Iron Banner so that they include everyone, no matter their level of investment in new content. We’ll talk to you more about that work as it gets done. These events will come back very soon, and they’ll be available to all."

The Dawning will begin on December 19, and run until January 9. The Bungie blog action will resume when it's over.